Flipping the dog bone

[kaoss]

I can't find much on the idea of flipping the dog bone other than the occasional mention of it on here. Google just gives me a bunch of sites about nintendogs.

 

I need a little more drop out of my '77 620. I'm trying to avoid spending the money swapping over to ball joints and running d21 drop spindles. I haven't measure anything yet, but it seems like I'll get a good 1.5" of drop out of doing this, I'm just not sure what I would need to do to make this work. After it's flipped, does the drum assembly become permanently upside down, or would it stay normal?

 

I hope that make sense.

 

Here's a pic of my set up.

 

[Pacific coast Datsun]

""I can't find much on the idea of flipping the dog bone other than the occasional mention of it on here. Google just gives me a bunch of sites about nintendogs.

 

I need a little more drop out of my '77 620. I'm trying to avoid spending the money swapping over to ball joints and running d21 drop spindles. I haven't measure anything yet, but it seems like I'll get a good 1.5" of drop out of doing this, I'm just not sure what I would need to do to make this work. After it's flipped, does the drum assembly become permanently upside down, or would it stay normal?""

 

PM Mklotz i seem to remember him knowing whats needed to flip the kingpins.

I want to say that the bushings need to be pressed out then the openings need to be bored out slightly then new bushings pressed back in.

Have you thought about Z-ing the lower control arms?

[mklotz70]

Not sure on the drum assy, but I'm pretty sure it fits both ways...the holes are symmetrical. After all the time/money/effort to mod the suspension, I can't see running drums if you actually want to drive it.

 

I dug up some old posts which say most of what I would say. The best option would be to put new kingpins and bushings in at the same time since you're going to have it all apart.

 

I don't see anyway to do it that wouldn't require parts/pieces to be machined. Check the info and we'll go from there. Can it be done....yes....can it be done safely....hhmm....maybe.....can it be done for free or really cheap.....only if you can machine your own parts. It would be cool to build new dogbones, but there's no market for them.....they'd easily cost over $250...probably a lot more. Paying to have new dogbones made would probably cost as much as doing a ball joint swap. I've got some ideas running around in my head for options, but it will be awhile before I get to look into them further.

 

Z'ing the LCA would certainly help, but you're clearance on the bag would be the prob. If you could mod the frame and get the bag tucked in more, you could probably go that route. I Z'd the LCA's on my NL....lot's of pics in my build thread, but I'm not sure what pages. http://community.ratsun.net/topic/393-mklotz70-nl320/

 

There was probably some good info on this subject on NWDE back in the day.... :(

 

 

I did a copy/paste of a few posts I made a few years ago....it's from this thread.....I had to find if via google search

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/1160-not-your-everyday-datsun-520/page__st__80

 

 

Posted 05 September 2007 - 08:57 PM

back to the kingpin flip. ADrummond came over today and we pulled the kingpins out of his spindles. We took a pretty good look at the dogbone. Although I'm still not recommending it, there's more meat there than I remembered. We thought it might work if the bigger top hole was bored out to remove the taper, then sleeved to accept the fulcrum pin. That might take the abuse. As for converting the smaller lower hole....a delrin(similar to nylon) sleeve over the stock bolt should work. The kingpin inclination appears to be parallel to the line between the pivot points of the dogbone, so the geometry should be the same once flipped. I've never cared for the idea based on ones I've seen previously, but I'm starting to come around to the idea.....if it's done right. I have to redo the kingpins on the NL....maybe they'll get flipped while I'm at it and that would save having to Z the control arms.

 

 

Posted 03 September 2007 - 04:32 PM

I'm still not a fan of the dogbone flipping. Have you considered "Z'ing" the lower control arms? Seems to me it would be safer and easier and still get the drop you want. Actually, I just measured it...you get 1.25" at most with the dogbone flip and a bit more than 1.75" with the control arm Z. You could even do a more drastic Z, but that's what the arm I have hear measured out at.

[BEEBANI]

I don't know if you remember or not Mike, but the 521 I had before my 620, I had flipped the dogbones. But I had to redo all the pivot points on them to accept bronze bushings because obviously the top and bottom pivots are different. It was an ok setup, but not worth the pain and struggle to do it, and I don't know how safe it would have been either.

 

So...like Mike said, it would be in your best interest to go ball joint, spring for the drop spindles and enjoy the much improved ride and handling, especially when laid out. I did the swap on my truck, and never looked back.

[kaoss]

Thanks for the input. I found some 17's, so that will help getting this thing laid, and if I ever decide to run a bigger wheel I'll swap it to ball joints and get some drop spindles.

[mklotz70]

I don't know if you remember or not Mike, but the 521 I had before my 620, I had flipped the dogbones. But I had to redo all the pivot points on them to accept bronze bushings because obviously the top and bottom pivots are different. It was an ok setup, but not worth the pain and struggle to do it, and I don't know how safe it would have been either.

 

So...like Mike said, it would be in your best interest to go ball joint, spring for the drop spindles and enjoy the much improved ride and handling, especially when laid out. I did the swap on my truck, and never looked back.

 

LOL....yep...those were the pieces I was referring to that would need machined....I just forgot to mention the bushings.

 

 

 

Thanks for the input. I found some 17's, so that will help getting this thing laid, and if I ever decide to run a bigger wheel I'll swap it to ball joints and get some drop spindles.

 

 

Much safer and a ton less grief......now you should consider a disc upgrade :) At the very least, upgrade the brake m/c to a dual reservoir unit.